ADD  R  ESS 

TO  THE 

People  of  the  City  of  to- York 

15 Y  THK 

CITIZENS'  ASSOCIATION 

OF  NEW-YORK. 
ADOPTED  AT  A  GENERAL  MEETING  HELD  MAY  9tk,  U 

THE  AMENDMENTS  TO  THK  CITY  CHARTER— 
THE  TWO  PER  CENT.  ACT — THE  DEBT. 


N  E  W  -  Y  0  R  K 


PUB-LISHEI)   BY  THE  ASSOCIAT  I  ()  N  . 

MAY,  1871 


iEx  iCtbrtfl 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


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Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  old  York  Liur  \ky 


ADDRESS 


TO  THE 

People  of  the  City  of  New-York 

1JY  THE 

CITIZENS'  ASSOCIATION 

OF  NEW- YORK. 
ADOPTED  AT  A  GENERAL  MEETING  HELD  MAY  94,  1871 

THE  AMENDMENTS  TO  THE  CITY  CHAKTEB  — 
THE  TWO  PEE  CENT.  ACT— THE  DEBT. 


NEW-YORK  : 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  ASSOCIATION 
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THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW- YORK. 


The  Amendments  to  the  Charier — The  Two  Peh 
Cent.  Act  — The  Debt. 

The  following  address  was  adopted  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Citizens'  Association,  held  May  9th,  1871,  at  813 
Broadway  : 

CITIZENS'  ASSOCIATION  OF  NEW-YORK,  ) 

May  9,  1871.  f 

To  the  Citizens  of  New=York: 

The  Citizens'  Association  presents  the  following 
analysis  of  the  more  important  acts  affecting  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  City  and  County  of  New  York,  passed 
at  the  last  session  of  the  Legislature.  These  pro- 
visions of  law  may  be  divided  into  three  classes: 

First — Those  which  affect  the  organic  structure  or 
the  administration  of  our  government. 

Second — Those  which  provide  for  current  expendi- 
ture from  annual  revenues. 

Third — Those  which  provide  for  an  increase  of  our 
permanent  debt. 

Of  the  laws  of  the  first  class  those  affecting,  our 
elections  seem  to  the  Association  unwise. 

THE  ELECTION  LAWS. 
The  election  taw  of  1870,  passed  by  an  almost 
unanimous  vote  of  both  political  parties,  provided 


4 


such  safeguards  against  illegal  registration  and  fraud- 
ulent voting  as  experience  had  shown  to  be  necessary. 
No  complaints  have  been  made  of  hardship  or  injus- 
tice in  the  operation  of  the  law.  The  new  act,  by 
directing  the  registration  of  voters  upon  the  Saturday 
before  election,  and  the  reception  of  the  votes  of  those 
who  do  not  register,  has  thrown  open  the  door  to  the 
frauds  which  have  so  often  disgraced  our  elections 
and  practically  disfranchised  our  honest  citizens. 

The  Association  presented  petitions  to  the  Legis- 
lature and  a  remonstrance  to  the  Chairman  of  the 
Senate  Committee  on  Cities  asking  that  this  bill  might 
not  pass. 

AMENDMENTS  TO  THE  CHARTER. 
The  amendments  to  the  City  Charter  are,  as  the 
Association  believes,  in  the  main  in  the  interest  of 
good  government.  Almost  all  of  them  tend  to  the 
consolidation  of  power  and  concentration  of  responsi- 
bility, which  were  among  the  chief  merits  of  the 
charter  of  1870.  The  reduction  of  the  number  of 
corporation  papers  from  seventy-six  to  nineteen  is  a 
necessary  measure  of  economy.  The  provisions  con- 
tained in  the  tax  levy  of  1870,  authorizing  the  Mayor 
to  appoint  the  Comptroller  and  Corporation  Counsel, 
are  embodied  in  the  charter.  Specially  authorized 
deputies  of  the  Comptroller  and  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Works  are  empowered  to  discharge  the  duties 
of  those  officers  in  their  absence.  The  powers  of  the 
Department  of  Docks  are  confirmed  and  extended. 
The  authority  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  Sinking 


5 


Fund  to  sell  the  market  property  of  the  city  is  re- 
newed and  defined.  It  is  made  the  duty  of  the 
Comptroller  to  make  to  the  Mayor  a  quarterly  report 
of  all  disbursements  made  by  him.  A  bureau  for  the 
removal  of  incumbrances,  and  a  bureau  of  railroads 
and  ferries  in  the  Department  of  Public  Works  are 
established.  The  powers  of  the  existing  Board  of 
Street  Opening  and  Improvement  are  extended  to  the 
whole  city  south  of  Fifty-ninth  Street. 

By  amendment  of  the  charter,  and  appointment  by 
the  Mayor  the  public  schools  have  been  intrusted  for 
five  years  to  the  Commissioners  who  for  two  years 
past  have  controlled  them.  The  present  board  con- 
tains members  of  both  political  parties,  and  of  six 
great  religious  denominations.  It  has  been  zealous, 
economical  and  efficient.  Our  system  of  public  edu- 
cation has  never  been  more  thorough  and  successful 
than  under  its  management. 

The  trustees  and  inspectors  of  schools  are  hereafter 
to  be  appointed  by  the  Mayor.  These  important 
trusts  cannot  safely  be  confided  to  men  who  have  no 
better  qualifications  than  success  in  local  politics. 

These  changes  complete  the  abandonment  of  the 
unfortunate  policy  introduced  throughout  our  State 
in  1846  of  shortening  terms  of  office,  and  intrusting 
the  election  of  all  officers  immediately  to  the  people. 
Nowhere  has  it  failed  so  entirely  as  in  this  city.  The 
Legislature  has  from  time  to  time,  by  acts  creating 
metropolitan  commissions  and  municipal  departments, 
endeavored  to  give  to  different  branches  of  the  city 
government  the  stability  and  independence  which 


under  the  elective  system  were  unattainable.  The  re- 
sult was  a  government  heterogeneous,  costly,  and  effi- 
cient only  in  a  portion  of  its  work.  Under  the  new 
system  a  mayor  elected  for  two  years  is  endowed  with 
the  fullest  power  for  good  government.  If  there  be 
waste,  dishonesty,  or  inefficiency  anywhere  in  our 
municipal  administration  the  Mayor  must  bear  the 
blame.  Those  who  have  found  it  impossible  to  choose 
intelligently  among  the  crowd  of  unknown  candidates 
for  charter  offices,  or  to  hold  them  when  chosen  to 
any  real  responsibility,  have  now  to  select  a  single 
steward  and  to  hold  him  to  a  strict  account.  To  our 
citizens  of  this  generation  this  system  is  an  experi- 
ment; but  it  is  tried  only  when  other  methods  have 
failed. 

TWO  PER  CENT.  ACT. 
The  most  important  measure  of  the  session  is  the 
act  known  as  the  two  per  cent,  tax  levy.  By  it  four 
officers,  the  Mayor,  Comptroller,  the  President  of  the 
Department  of  Public  Parks,  and  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Works,  are  directed  to  meet  as  a  board  of 
apportionment  and  make  the  appropriations  for  all 
departments  and  purposes  of  the  City  and  County 
Governments,  and  the  Supervisors  are  directed  to 
raise  by  taxation  the  sum  so  appropriated.  By  the 
bill  as  originally  introduced,  the  total  amount  of  the 
appropriations,  together  with  the  portion  of  the  State 
tax  borne  by  the  city,  and  the  interest  and  principal 
of  the  city  and  county  debt,  falling  due  within  the 
year,  was  limited  to  2  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  the 


7 


estates  liable  to  taxation,  as  assessed  for  the  year  1871. 
The  rate  of  taxation  was  thus  greatly  reduced,  and 
the  city  revenue  fixed  at  an  amount  barely  sufficient 
to  defray  the  expense  of  government.  Before  the 
act  was  passed,  however,  it  was  ascertained  that  the 
proportion  of  State  tax  to  be  borne  by  the  city  was 
greatly  increased,  and  the  bill  was  amended  by  adding 
to  the  amount  which  the  Supervisors  were  authorized 
to  raise,  the  excess  of  the  State  tax  for  1871  over 
that  for  1870,  amounting  to  something  less  than 
§2,000  000. 

No  measure  of  such  merit  has  been  more  misrepre- 
sented and  more  unfairly  discussed.  To  the  attacks 
of  those  who  were  interested  in  perpetuating  extrav- 
agance and  dishonesty  was  added  opposition  from 
very  respectable  quarters.  The  Association,  believing 
that  the  bill  was  the  best  which  could  under  the  cir- 
cumstances be  passed,  strenuously  advocated  it.  Pe- 
titions in  its  favor  were  presented  to  the  Legislature, 
and  in  the  daily  press  the  Association  explained  the 
measure  and  discussed  its  effects.  With  those  who 
opposed  the  bill  without  reading  it,  who  attacked  it 
one  day  because  the  word  "now"  appeared  in  one  of 
its  clauses,  and  denounced  it  the  next,  because  the 
word  "  now  "  was  stricken  out,  no  argument  was  pos- 
sible. But  to  every  honest  objection  the  association 
presented  an  answer.  To  those  who  opposed  the  bill 
because  it  gave  to  executive  officers  the  power  of  fix- 
ing the  amount  of  taxation,  it  was  answered  that,  in 
this  respect,  there  was  no  change  in  the  present  sys- 
tem ;  that  the  Legislature  had  year  by  year  conferred 


8 


on  different  local  boards,  composed  of  executive  offi- 
cers, the  power  to  make  provision  for  the  annual  ex- 
penses of  the  City  and  County  Government,  and  that 
the  annual  tax  levy,  while  providing  for  only  a  few 
necessary  purposes,  had  become  a  vehicle  for  needless 
appropriations,  burdensome  to  the  City,  and  corrupt- 
ing to  the  Legislature.  To  those  who  feared  that  the 
bill  would  give  to  the  officers  named  in  it  too  great 
power  to  increase  the  burdens  of  taxation,  the  Associa- 
tion pointed  out  that  these  officers  belonged  to  and 
controlled  five  boards,  in  each  of  which  they  had  un- 
checked authority  to  appropriate  money,  while  they 
shared  with  others  the  responsibility  for  extravagance, 
that  the  two  per  Cent.  Bill  limited  the  existing  power 
of  expenditure,  and  conferred  only  the  power  of  econ- 
omy. To  those  who  argued  that  the  basis  upon  which 
the  taxes  were  to  be  calculated  was  liable  to  change, 
the  Association  pointed  out  that  under  the  law  and 
the  practice  of  the  Department,  of  Taxes  and  Assess- 
ments, the  maximum  basis  of  taxation  would  be  set- 
tled before  the  Bill  could  become  a  law.  To  all  the 
Association  showed  that  the  limit  fixed  was  a  reason- 
able one,  and  that  in  the  passage  of  some  such  meas- 
ure and  the  creation  of  some  body  clothed  with  full 
and  general  power  of  retrenchment,  and  acting  under 
full  responsibility,  lay  the  only  hope  of  escape  from 
the  most  demoralizing  forms  of  extravagance,  the  pro- 
fligate expenditure  in  printing  and  supplies,  the  em- 
ployment of  useless  laborers,  and  the  creation  and  per- 
petuation of  sinecure  offices;  and  finally,  that  the  im- 
mediate effects  of  the  measure  would  be  a  saving  to 


0 


the  City  of  more  than  $6,000,000  a  year,  and  to  every 
tax-payer  of  a  fifth  part  of  his  taxes.  While  some 
provisions  recommended  by  the  Association  were  not 
adopted,  every  change  actually  made  by  the  Two  Per 
Cent.  Bill  was  an  improvement  upon  the  system  pre- 
viously existing. 

CITY  BONDS. 

With  regard  to  the  laws  authorizing  the  issue  of 
bonds,  the  Association  desires  to  express  its  belief  that 
the  five  following  appropriations,  which  it  has  steadily 
opposed,  were  unwise  and  improper: 

Sirst — The  appropriation  of  §600,000  for  the  new 
court-houses  in  the  Third  and  Ninth  Judicial  Dis- 
tricts- 

These  structures  have  already  cost  $100,000  each 
without  reckoning  the  value  of  their  sites.  The  City 
cannot  afford  to  make  such  enormous  ouilay  to  pro- 
vide accommodations  for  every  District  Court. 

Second— §-j 50,000  for  completing  the  County  Court- 
house. No  more  money  should  be  spent  in  gilding 
and  decorating  this  monument  of  corruption  and  ex- 
travagance. 

Shird—  For  the  Fire  Alarm  Telegraph,  $400,000. 

In  1870  §400,000  was  directed  to  be  paid  for  this 
telegraph,  the  contract  price  for  which  was  $426,450- 
If  there  are  any  facts  which  make  this  further  expen- 
diture reasonable  and  honest,  they  have  not  been  given 
to  the  public. 


10 


fourth — For  payment  of  the  claims  of  ex-Sheriff 
O'Brien. 

Without  referring  to  the  validity  of  these  claims, 
which  are  to  be  audited  by  the  Corporation  Counsel, 
it  is  enough  to  say  that  they  arise  from  services  ren- 
dered to  the  City  during  Mr.  O  Brien's  term  of  office 
as  Sheriff. 

On  principle,  current  expenses  should  not  be  paid 
by  the  issue  of  bonds. 

Sifih — For  the  establishment  of  a  parade  ground, 
$450.  oco. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  one-tenth  of  our  island  is 
already  devoted  to  public  places,  it  seems  wholly  un- 
necessary to  make  further  expenditure  for  these  pur- 
poses. 

The  provision  of  $3,000,000  for  the  improvement 
of  the  parks  and  the  erection  of  museums  is  large,  but 
if  the  money  be  as  judiciously  expended  as  the  greater 
part  of  that  previously  appropriated  for  similar  pur- 
poses, the  community  will  have  no  reason  to  com- 
plain. The  necessity  for  developing  the  water  sup- 
ply of  the  City  has  long  been  felt.  The  limit  of  ex- 
penditure for  this  purpose  which  was  originally  $5,- 
000,000,  was,  on  the  representations  of  the  Association, 
reduced  by  the  Legislature  to  $1,000,000.  It  is  hoped 
that  a  smaller  amount  may  be  sufficient.  The  appro- 
priation of  $1,300,000  for  new  Croton  mains  seems 
not  to  be  excessive  in  view  of  the  increased  wants  of 
our  city.  The  appropriation  of  $580,000  for  new 
school  buildings  is  reasonable  and  proper. 


11 


THE  VIADUCT  RAILROAD. 

The  Act  creating  the  Viaduct  Railroad  Company 
and  authorizing  the  City  to  contribute  to  it  $5,000,- 
000  does  not,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Association,  furnish 
sufficient  guarantees  for  the  protection  of  the  City  in 
its  investment  or  for  the  building  of  the  road.  The 
defects  in  the  law  will  doubtless  be  supplied  by  the 
local  authorities.  The  public  money  should  be  so 
given  as  to  stimulate  and  not  check  private  enter- 
prise ;  and  the  City  should  have  abundant  assurance 
that  the  great  work  is  to  be  honestly  and  rapidly  pros- 
ecuted. The  appropriation  to  provide  accommoda- 
tion for  patients  suffering  from  contagious  diseases  is 
a  necessary  one. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  these  provisions  of  law 
are  permissive  and  not  mandatory,  and  in  view  of  this 
fact  one  of  the  sections  of  the  Two  Per  Cent.  Act  has 
an  especial  importance.  It  provides  that  no  bonds 
except  those  issued  by  the  Commissioners  of  the  Sink- 
ing Fund  shall  be  issued  without  the  authority  and 
concurrence  of  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Appor- 
tionment in  addition  to  all  other  authority  required 
by  law.  For  every  increase  of  the  City  debt  each 
member  of  this  Board  is  thus  made  directly  responsi- 
ble, and  the  public  have  a  right  to  expect  that  these 
officers  will  refuse  their  sanction  to  the  unwise  and 
extravagant  expenditure  which  the  Legislature,  neces- 
sarily less  acquainted  with  the  wants  of  the  City,  has 
authorized. 

The  Governor's  veto  of  the  Bill  directing  the  ap- 


pointment  of  civil  justices'  clerks,  prevented  a  useless 
expenditure  of  $45,000  a  year. 

The  passage  of  the  Act  relating  to  the  Broad- 
way widening,  and  the  setting  aside  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  report  of  the  Commissioners  in  that  mat- 
ter, have  saved  the  City  several  millions  of  dollars. 

In  the  present  condition  of  most  of  the  Executive 
departments  of  our  local  Government,  in  the  simpli- 
fication of  our  municipal  system,  and  in  the  deep  and 
general  interest  which  is  felt  in  the  affairs  of  our  City, 
the  Association  sees  the  most  convincing  proof  of  the 
success  of  the  efforts  for  reform,  which  have  been  made 
in  the  last  ten  years,  and  the  best  ground  of  hope  for 
the  future. 


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